Friday, February 7, 2014

Highlights from Friday at RootsTech 2014

Friday at RootsTech 2014 was very busy for me, and I went to no class sessions.  I did go to lunch.  Here was my day:

*  Attended the 8:30 a.m. Keynote session by Judy G. Russell and Spencer Wells.  They were two excellent presentations. Watch this on the RootsTech.org video when it becomes available.

*  Went to the Media Center in the Expo Hall at 9:45 a.m., and updated the RootsTech Blog Compendium.  Talked to other geneabloggers in the center, also talked to readers, bloggers and exhibitors who stopped by to talk with me (I'm usually on the back aisle near the Demo stage).  The Media Center was very busy all day, with the keynote speakers and other luminaries being interviewed in the glass cage by media folks, plus side discussions at the tables and the comfortable couches in the corner.  It is difficult to have a conversation sometimes because of the Demo stage nearby.

*  Walked around the Expo Hall, and took some pictures.  Talked to the WikiTree ladies of the wiki, Eowyn and Tami.  Eowyn gave me a T-shirt for taking a selfie with her (I promised to post it...):


*  Went to the MyHeritage lunch as a guest of Schelly and Mark.  The speaker was the new MyHeritage Chief Product Officer, Michael Mailin on "New Products at MyHeritage: The Next Frontier."  Michael talked about his own heritage, how he came to MyHeritage, the features of MyHeritage, and some plans for the future.  It was interesting, and the lunch was good.  There were about 300 attendees.

*  Back to the Media Center, and I wrote the Friday Keynotes at RootsTech 2014 post.  Then it was off into the Expo Hall again to find a new genealogy product to feature.  I decided on one, and came back to write RootsTech 2014 - New Genealogy. Product: Saving Memories Forever.  More readers and bloggers came by also.  I enjoy these interactions and I usually learn something from them.  

*  Stefan Harms from Germany came by and showed me his 600 page family history book that he made using his Family Book Creator program which uses a Family Tree Maker database.  It was impressive, and I look forward to trying it out soon.

*  I went off to the Expo Hall again and took some more pictures, and talked to exhibitors and their guests.  I showed some of those pictures in More Expo Hall Photos from RootsTech 2014 and Expo Hall Panorama View at RootsTech 2014.

*  I was done at 5 p.m., so went back to the hotel, picked up Linda, and off we went to the Family History Library for the pizza and research party.  I had pizza, but Linda couldn't eat it due to her allergies.  We went to JBs on the corner near the FHL for dinner with Laurie and Bev from Arizona (Laurie had allergies too).  I had ice cream while Linda had the salad bar.  We passed on the library.  Then it was back to the hotel.

*  I updated the Compendium post, wrote the two photos posts and this post.  A blogger's work is never done, it seems - I'll do it again on Saturday.

*  It didn't rain or snow today, even though the weather forecast this morning on TV was heavy snow in Salt Lake City.  It might snow on Saturday, though.  The temperatures have been in the 20-45 F range - warmer today than earlier in the week.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/highlights-from-friday-at-rootstech-2014.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



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